The invention relates to an electronic control device for a valve range of modular design, which comprises a fluid manifold arrangement fitted with an electrically controlled valve, the valves being adapted to be controlled via at least one control modules, said control device comprising input and/or output modules and a central electronic control unit, with which the individual modules can be connected for control and/or data communication.
Control devices of this type have long been supplied by the assignee as valve ranges or sets of valves, in which case a plate-like fluid manifold or distributor in one or more parts is fitted with multiway valves. Moreover such a valve range of modular design may comprise input/output modules for the input of sensor signals or for the control of further external devices. In such a case the central control unit controls different modules via a bus line system. One such electronic control device or, respectively, valve range is for instance described in the German patent publication 9,211,109 U.
Conventionally in such equipment each module possesses an address decoder, which compares a set address of the respective module with the current address appearing on the address bus. It is only in the case of equivalence that a control microprocessor of the central control unit can access this module. The addresses are in this case normally set using switches or permanent wiring. During the manufacture of such a known valve range it is consequently necessary to set the addresses for each module the be brought into agreement with the program of the central control unit. This represents an extremely slow and involved process, more especially in the case of adding further modules to an existing valve range, as for example when further sensors are to be installed, further external devices are to be controlled or further additional valves are to be actuated.